Leonid Kravchuk, the fist president of independent Ukraine, has announced he is leaving the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united).

He said this in an interview with the Den newspaper, published on Friday.

Kravchuk said he made the decision because he didn't agree with the decision of the party to unite with the Communist party, the Justice Party the Union of Leftists in one bloc to participate in the presidential elections.

"I'm leaving the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united), as, first of all, this decision was approved in a closed, non-democratic regime. And now, following that logic, perhaps I should vote for Symonenko [the Communist party leader]?" he said.

"This is an artificial union that has no prospects, as the different forces of this so-called bloc have absolutely different programs. And they have nothing in common at all," he said.

Kravchuk said that "a meeting should have been held during which the participants should have explained the purpose of this union and so on. But there was no meeting. They made this [decision] in a closed, behind-the-curtain regime."

According to Kravchuk, current leadership of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) hasn't yet grown up to "real European social-democracy."

As reported, on September 14 the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU), the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (SDPU) (united), the Justice Party and the Union of Leftists signed an agreement and declaration on creating the bloc of leftists and center-leftists in order to participate in the presidential election.